Fiddlehead Theatre redefining itself as professional venue

Jody Feinberg

Wednesday

Oct 31, 2007 at 12:01 AMOct 31, 2007 at 1:14 PM

Like Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady,” Fiddlehead Theatre began as one thing and evolved into another. In its newest version, the community theater is on its way to becoming a professional theater, where lead roles are played by professional performers from the Actors Equity Association.

Like Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady,” Fiddlehead Theatre began as one thing and evolved into another. In its newest version, the community theater is on its way to becoming a professional theater, where lead roles are played by professional performers from the Actors Equity Association.

That’s a long way from Fiddlehead’s start in 1993 as a small community theater group of amateurs whose shows bounced among school auditoriums and church halls until the theater acquired a home in a former movie house in Norwood Center in 1996.

“To the average viewer ‘equity’ is a meaningless term, but it means that these are truly theater professionals,” said Meg Fofonoff, the theater’s executive producer and president. “The level is the best you’re going to get.”

The Equity actors also give the theater the chance for artistic director Stacey Stephens to realize his vision of giving new life to classic plays and musicals.

“I want to raise the bar and bring a professionalism to what we’re doing,” said Stephens, who has performed on Broadway and in touring companies,
directed and designed costumes.

For a theater to earn Equity designation, it has to hire two or more Equity actors for each show. In the recent run of “My Fair Lady,” Eliza Doolittle is played by Equity actress Bridget Beirne, who has appeared off-Broadway in a number of Equity theaters and regionally at Cape Playhouse and SpeakEasy Stage Co. Brendan McNab, who stars as Henry Higgins, has appeared at New Rep, SpeakEasy and Lyric Stage. To be an Equity actor, a performer has to have appeared in a certain number of shows in Equity theaters.

“There are other things we need to do officially become an Equity theater, but we’re on our way,” Fofonoff said, citing the need to meet requirements for bathrooms and technical crews.

With that in mind, Fiddlehead continues to appeal to private donors and seek corporate support. Ticket prices are insufficient to fund these improvements.

“I know it’s going to be a long road,’ Fofonoff said. “Ticket sales alone are not what you can subsist on, though at some point we’ll have to raise ticket prices. I don’t know when.”

Musicals, in particular, are expensive to produce. Production costs for a musical like “My Fair Lady” are around $75,000 and Equity actors receive a minimum of $300 a week, Fofonoff said.

Fiddlehead also is undertaking a $300,000 capital campaign to purchase 500 new seats and a new curtain, as well as do other renovations in the 80-year-old theater. Recently, it used private donations to restore the ornamental plaster and gold-leaf lion heads around the stage.

“We want to bring the theater back to its glory,” Stephens said. “It’s a beautiful old theater with a lot to offer.

The 2007-08 season continues with “A Christmas Carol” on Nov. 30, Dec. 1-2, 6-9; “Steel Magnolias” on Feb. 15-17, 21-24; and “Crazy for You” on April 18-20, 24-27.

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